1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to greeting cards, and more particularly to a greeting card having an image transfer material. The image transfer material can be pre-printed with an image or the image may be subsequently added to the image transfer material.
The image transfer material of the greeting card can be applied to a receptor element, such as cotton or cotton/polyester blend fabrics or the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Greeting cards represent an old and expansive market in the world. However, as a new twist to an old concept, some companies have included detachable decals with their greeting cards.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,102,171 describes a greeting card having a peel-off sheet formed of static cling vinyl on which an image is printed. This sheet may be attached by electrostatic attraction to a non-porous surface. Also, U.S. Pat. No. 5,284,365 describes a greeting card having a cut out containing a removable message section that can be removed from the basic greeting card, and by means of adhesive or magnetic material, applied to a surface. However, neither U.S. Pat. No. 5,102,171 nor U.S. Pat. No. 5,284,365 is heat-transferable.
A greeting card containing a heat-transferable decal section is described by U.S. Pat. No. 5,951,057. According to this patent, a greeting card may include a detachable decal section having printed thereon an image of, for example, a cartoon character. The decal section in U.S. Pat. No. 5,951,057 is printed with a transferable ink and the remainder of the card is printed with a non-transferable ink. However, U.S. Pat. No. 5,951,057 discloses only greeting cards containing decals which are pre-printed with transferable inks.
However, the prior art fails to describe greeting cards containing heat-transferable materials which are pre-printed with an image formed from something other than a transferable ink. The prior art also fails to describe greeting cards containing decals which are not pre-prints, but rather blank materials to which a specific image, of the user's choice, may be added before heat-transferring to a receptor element.